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This study has been carried out in 17 villages of desert districts of Rajasthan. A total of 538 house holds were covered out of which 834 preschool children were examined. 16.4% were found to be sick at the time of survey. 10.7% suffered from skin morbidities, 8.9% from eye morbidities and 7.2% from fever. Eye morbidities, fever and other problems were observed to be higher in females than males. The prevalence of associated signs of protein calorie malnutrition (PCM) was observed to be significantly higher in the present study than Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study. Percent prevalence of anemia, vitamin-A- and vitamin-B-complex deficiencies along with skin, eye and respiratory morbidities were observed to be higher in desert areas as compared to the data of non-desert areas. This may be attributed to high percentage of illiteracy, low income of their parents, poor housing conditions and exposure of the studied population to harsh environmental conditions of desert areas, which mainly leads to malnutrition and in turn to higher prevalence of morbidity in desert populations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.